ATHENS — Pleasant Plains High School buried 11 of 14 free throws in the final period and went on to secure a 55-44 victory over host Athens in a Sangamo Conference boys basketball game Wednesday night.

Plains improved to 8-1 in the Sangamo and remained tied for the conference lead. At the start of the night, Plains, Williamsville and Petersburg PORTA each had one loss in league play. PORTA played Auburn on Wednesday.

Plains will end conference play at Riverton on Friday.

Athens led Plains 27-25 at the half, getting nine first-half points from Ryan Freer and seven from Nick Hanner. Freer finished with a game-high 20 points with three 3-pointers and Hanner added 11 for the Warriors.

But Plains outscored Athens 12-9 in the third period to take a 37-36 lead after three. Landon Davis made two of his three 3-pointers in the quarter and he finished with 11 points. Plains took advantage at the line in the fourth. Cole Greer (11 points) went 6-for-6 at the charity in the quarter and Will Gustafson was 3-for-4 at the line in an 18-8 advantage for the Cardinals in the period.

Isaac Collins, who had three 3-pointers, drilled a trey for Plains in the fourth and finished with nine points.

MOUNT OLIVE 70, BUNKER HILL 53: At Mount Olive, Brenden O’Neal scored a game-high 24 points to lead the Wildcats to a Prairie State Conference win on Senior Night.

Mount Olive led 31-23 at the half and closed the game out in the fourth period by outscoring Bunker Hill 24-14. Blake Bartok scored a career-high 12 points and Austin Viehwig added 11 for Mount Olive (3-22 overall, 1-4 in the PSC).

Bunker Hill finished with 12 3-pointers, led by Kameron McLaughlin’s 18 points and five 3s.